The WORK.INC-project had two main objectives, to conduct empirical studies in the field of work inclusion of people with disabilities and enhance professional capacity to be a leader in this field.
The work performed to achieve the first objective includes two empirical studies. A literature review answers the question of what emerges as important core components in the literature regarding collaboration between employers and the support system in support-side approaches or methods for employment of people with disabilities. The review includes 81 peer-review scientific articles. The analysis demonstrated cognitive, emotional and manual core components for successful collaboration between employers and support persons. The second study was a combined observational and interview study exploring prominent features in the collaboration between employers and employment specialists in work inclusion processes of employees with disabilities. In the analysis, trust emerged as highly prominent feature in a successful collaboration. The trustworthiness of the process, and especially the trustful relations between employers and employment specialists, paved the way to employment of persons with disabilities. The findings have been disseminated to both scientific audiences and professionals within the field, such as the Swedish Authority for participation and to The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), informing their policies on work inclusion.
The second objective, to enhance professional capacity, has involved several activities during the project. Professional capacity in research leadership has been enhanced by project management and supervision of six doctoral students. Supervision of doctoral students is needed to apply for a docenteur (i.e. associate professorship in the Swedish Academia). Enhancing professional capacity has also involved competence development by participating in higher education courses (needed to apply for a docenteur) and in other research activities, such as scientific conferences, research seminars and research networks. During the project period, four scientific articles have been drafted, two building on the data collections in the project and two building on previous data collections. These articles are in late-stage progress, planned to be submitted before July 2024. Professional capacity has also been enhanced by writing a book chapter on case studies (to be published by Routledge in 2024). Moreover, during the project period eight large research grant applications have been written where three have been granted, and two are still in the assessment process. Being granted external grants (and research time) is important in the Swedish academia, as there are typically few internal opportunities to be granted time dedicated to research by the academia. One of the grants, aiming to explore employment services for long-term unemployed, is an explicit outcome of this project, as the involved researchers were part of the Integrate-collaboration. These grants will enhance professional capacity to apply for a professorship, in the future.
